Older GPS? Keep an eye on it in April 2019
- Thread starter dwh
- Start date
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
https://www.spirent.com/blogs/positioning/2018/january/gps-rollover-week
This happens every 19.7 years and we're actually in GPS Epoch 2, a rollover happened already once in August of 1999. So in theory a receiver designed after that *should* have anticipated this issue.
But that's probably not going to actually be the case since I know the Garmin GPS 17x has already hiccuped in some cases. So it's possible there's plenty of latent firmware issues still out there even relatively current products. Make sure to update those receivers!
This happens every 19.7 years and we're actually in GPS Epoch 2, a rollover happened already once in August of 1999. So in theory a receiver designed after that *should* have anticipated this issue.
But that's probably not going to actually be the case since I know the Garmin GPS 17x has already hiccuped in some cases. So it's possible there's plenty of latent firmware issues still out there even relatively current products. Make sure to update those receivers!
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
The person I know who's already had trouble with a Garmin GPS 17x, which is running a STMicro Teseo chipset AFAIK. No idea if the firmware hadn't been updated but the problem may present in unexpected places.
Red90
Adventurer
That is strange. I have Garmins over 20 years old that work fine. At that time there was lots of discussion with Garmin engineers as they tested every model before the last EOW. It would be very strange to have a newer device that have an issue. The code needed to avoid the problem is stupid simple.
Martinjmpr
Wiffleball Batter
I guess I'll have to see if my ancient, steam-powered Magellan Meridian (which I bought as a "leftover" in 2005) will still work after April. I only use it on my motorcycle and mostly to track miles, not really to "navigate."
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
If your receiver is affected the location will still be correct and navigation should still work. The critical part of the signal interface for this function isn't date sensitive. The time and date would be incorrect of course, so track recording might break.
The real concern is how vulnerable data loggers and time synchronizing functions used everywhere might be affected. Talking about anything sync'd to UTC based on the GPS signal for coordination on the power grid, telecomm, financial system, fleet management, etc. The system may shift 19.7 years at the epoch roll over.
No doubt there'll be glitches but probably mostly a gigantic nonevent. Just depends on firmware bugs and if needed patches were applied.
The real concern is how vulnerable data loggers and time synchronizing functions used everywhere might be affected. Talking about anything sync'd to UTC based on the GPS signal for coordination on the power grid, telecomm, financial system, fleet management, etc. The system may shift 19.7 years at the epoch roll over.
No doubt there'll be glitches but probably mostly a gigantic nonevent. Just depends on firmware bugs and if needed patches were applied.
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Airmapper
Inactive Member
Everyone thought Y2K was going to be a big deal and it wasn't.
What if everyone thinks this wont be a big deal, but it is???
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Like a program manager once asked in a status meeting, with a totally straight face, "Are there any unknowns we don't know about?"
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
I just came across an issue with a couple of Garmin GPS-18x LVC pucks reporting date as January 2000 instead of August 2019. Fixed with a firmware update (current is 4.20 released March 21, 2019).
TripLeader
Explorer
Thanks for posting this. My 5 or 6 year-old Tomtom was effected. It happened in April. It would show location without issue. But it could not navigate for more than 5 minutes without recalculating and changing the route to the wrong way.
It had been about 18 months since I had last plugged it in to the computer and updated it through Tomtom. So I plugged it in. It took about 6 hours for the update, which was unusual. One if the updates had the name "gpsfix" or something similar. It works fine now.
I had been worried about it, but now I feel much better.
It had been about 18 months since I had last plugged it in to the computer and updated it through Tomtom. So I plugged it in. It took about 6 hours for the update, which was unusual. One if the updates had the name "gpsfix" or something similar. It works fine now.
I had been worried about it, but now I feel much better.
